About Special Umbria


Since the late 1990s we, Rob Landeweerd and Jeroen Macco (both of Dutch nationality), have developed a passion for Italy in all its senses: good food, fashion, its mountains, hills and sea landscapes, its art and culture and above all, great friendly people. We have travelled through the entire country from North to South and found our home in the so called “green heart”, Umbria. We enjoy offering good food and hospitality, making people feel at home, whether in the company of our families and good old friends or with new acquaintances and people from our business network.

In 2006 we decided to buy a property in Umbria. In the end we chose for having our own property constructed just on the border with Tuscany, not far from Lake Trasimeno. Building our own house, we discovered ourselves how important it is to be aware of all the various aspects of constructing property in Italy: knowing the Italian way of doing business, speaking the language and keeping as much as possible the focus on adhering to deadlines and results. But, most importantly, in undertaking a project like this we experienced so much fun! We realised to have found a unique opportunity: combining the international business experience built in our professional careers with our passion for all the beautiful things Italy has to offer.

In 2008 we decided to get involved in the estate business (property and project management services) for clients who have their second home in Umbria and need assistance in every single detail. Since then we built a large number of exclusive villas and apartments for our clients, all different in style from the mainstream. Properties that can be called each and every single one of them: 'SPECIAL'. In 2009 we have added an extra service to our activities with this website: Renting out exclusively beautiful villas, apartments and country houses. Luxury places to stay in Umbria...in all senses. In 2010 Domenico Casamassima became our business partner and together we developed further our services. In 2012 we expanded our activities with Sales on the SpecialUmbria website: a fine selection of only the most special places for sale in Umbria. For this we are offering our clients only the most special places where in fact we would like to live ourselves. Every single property has something really special and needs to fit within our own personal criteria.

We have known personally how difficult and stressful it can sometimes be when you are not on the building location yourself to keep an eye on the progress and to instruct the people to build according to your wishes. And since buying, building, restoring and having your own property abroad must be an exciting, energy-creating activity, we are available with our team to make this dream come true for clients from all over the world.

And why do we like to do this? Because we are enthusiastic of the unique combination among the progress of our own building project, being regularly in Italy and enjoying the fun from our former positions: offering high quality services and working with people from all over the world.

We have some fine properties for sale. We also offer a fine collection of rental villas.

SpecialUmbria is regularly being featured in the press.

Meet our team

Rob Landeweerd (1970) obtained his Bachelor's Degree in Hotel & Hospitality Management. He worked in various roles in the Hospitality Industry and later at Randstad Group for some years. He joined '30days' in 2001, a start-up Recruitment and Personnel - Search company. He successfully developed the company, running it between 2002 and 2007 as Managing Director. Within the SpecialUmbria team Rob has his primary focus on rentals, project management and interior design assignments. Also he's responsible for all the marketing activities. He communicates in Dutch, English, Italian and German.

Jeroen Macco (1971) graduated in Business Administration at Nijenrode Business School and got his Masters Degree in Business Economics at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Jeroen worked as Strategic Management Consultant at both the Royal Netherlands Air force and at ING Group. At this financial services company, where he has worked in total for over 7 years, he has also performed several other managing roles relating to Human Resources and Business Management in the international context of the company. After that he has worked as an independent Consultant for the Russian, Kazakh and Romanian Consumer Operations of ABN AMRO Bank. Early 2010 Jeroen obtained registration as acknowledged real estate agent in Italy. Within the team Jeroen has his primary focus on sales, project management and all financial, fiscal, legal and bureaucratic (authorities) issues related to our clients projects and properties. He communicates in Dutch, English, Italian and German.

In 2010 Domenico Casamassima (1978) joined the Special Umbria team. Domenico graduated in Food Tecnology at the University of Potenza and studied Dietics at the University of Perugia. Domenico communicates in Italian and English. He is responsible for property management in the Lake Trasimeno / Tuscan border area and is responsabile for project management and interior design assignments.

Early 2017 Sara Ceccherini (1978) came on board of SpecialUmbria. Sara focuses on all aspects of our sales management as well as property management activities. She has wide experiences in international luxury services, tourism and real estate activities, among which high class deliveries for the Royal Family of Dubai as well as other important institutions in the Middle East. Her competencies included developing public relations, organising networking business-to-business events, press contacts and marketing. Early 2019 she obtained registration as acknowledged real estate agent in Italy. Sara communicates in Italian and English.

In January 2022 Lorenzo Antenucci (1989) joined the SpecialUmbria team. Lorenzo is responsable for the rental requests and guest relations and is dealing with our property management activities. Lorenzo, born and raised in Umbria, studied administration in Perugia. The last 8 years he worked and lived in London, of which the last 6 years he worked for the fashion brand Tom Ford, where he developed his skills in international customer relations. Lorenzo communicates in Italian, English and French.

Lidia Paroli (1976) joined the SpecialUmbria team in Spring 2018 in the role of accounting and financial controller. She handles all financial, administrative and tax issues for our clients and our company. Lidia communicates in Italian and English.

Alessandro Falini (1985) works with SpecialUmbria since March 2017 in the role of property manager for the majority of the properties under SU management in the Lake Trasimeno area (Castiglione del Lago, Città della Pieve and Piegaro). He communicates in English and Italian.

In 2011 Tamara Secci (1975) joined SpecialUmbria in the role of support officer. She handles all the rentals and supports the content on the SpecialUmbria website and all other websites where we are present. As half Sardinian-half Dutch it was quite logical she would join our team, after she had worked together with Rob for many years at their former company. Tamara communicates in Dutch and English.

In July 2022 Elisa Brilli (1984) joined the SpecialUmbria team in the role of support officer. She is the central point of contact in our office in Piegaro where she handles secretarial jobs and contractual dossiers for our clients and our company. Elisa communicates in Italian and English.